Why does Jerusalem matter to your future?
We pray for Jerusalem, but we don’t perhaps truly understand why this place is so important… after all, our Temple isn’t there anymore. Another people conquered it after we lost and were exiled. Another people proclaimed Jerusalem their capital, changed the name of Israel, and cast the Jews to the vicious winds of humanity’s will. It doesn’t belong to us anymore - just give it up!
This is what they are thinking, the Jews who have become swayed against Jewish rights to Jerusalem. This is what they believe, the nations of the world who have become monumental historical revisionists. And they are getting away with it.
In all the years of her existence, Palestine was known as Eretz Yisrael to all Jews everywhere, and in every faithful community of the world who knew the history, knew the Bible, read the Koran. That land, that Jerusalem, that Palestine was the home of the Jewish people which conquering forces scattered to the edges of the earth. And in every corner, the Jews and the Land of Israel were intertwined in public, religious, spiritual, political and economic consciousness.
And in the Jewish heart, Jerusalem, Hebron, Beersheva, Jericho, Kiryat Arba, Bethlehem, Acco, Tzfat, Tiberias, Meron - these places reverberted in the Jewish soul, carrying from generation to generation the importance of our land gifted by Hashem, the inheritance we carried throughout the sufferings of exile which gave us eternal hope. The Jewish connection to the land continued to inspire through the words and works of the rabbis and leaders of these communities.
Jerusalem conjured up images of camels, golden stones, secret markets and hidden alleyways. It has aroused writers to extol the ancient walls of David’s city, while recognizing that the land was barren of life. Today, she thrives.
We want Jerusalem to have peace. That Jerusalem will be a Light Unto the Nations. That Jerusalem will be a spiritual home for anyone who wants or needs it. That Jerusalem will help us refocus on what is, and what is not, truly important. That Jerusalem will continue to shine as a place where hope and possibility meet history and tradition and blends into the future. That Jews can build a life in Jerusalem, work here, visit here - and all will be welcome, safe and free.
However, in order for that to happen, Jerusalem needs to remain important. It needs to remain free. It needs to remain in each of our hearts all year round. Not just as a forgotten passage at the end of the Haggadah signaling another Jewish holiday is over. Jerusalem needs your support. Not just in thought, but in act and deed. Without it, we lose our ties to everything that binds us together in the unbroken chain of thousands of years of Jewish history.
Conflicts over Jerusalem go back thousands of years — including biblical times, the Roman Empire and the Crusades. But the current one is distinctly unique in its effort to erase the history, identity and memory of Jews with Jerusalem and the Land of Israel, what came to be named by the Romans as Palestine in an early attempt at erasing our connection to our beloved homeland. But the most dangerous conflicts we are facing as the Jewish nation are the assimilation, bullying, campus Antisemitism, fear and acts of terror that push kids away from Judaism and from the idea of Jerusalem at an alarming rate. Of all the destructions we have seen as a nation, this is not the first time they have attempted to sever us from our faith, our practice, our identity. But this is perhaps the first time that our own people have been so aggressively involved in calling for us to give up our ancestral home and, in turn, our historical destiny.
If Jerusalem does not matter to the future of Jews, then it will be our own indifference, apathy, and lack of determination that will break the bond of thousands of years of ancient connection. If we do not work together to raise Jerusalem above politics, then we will deny our children the ability to understand why our political battles for Jerusalem do matter.
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